List of lost United States submarines
These United States submarines were lost either to enemy action or to "storm or perils of the sea."
Before World War II
Additionally:- , decommissioned as a target, flooded and sank unexpectedly 30 July 1919 in Two Tree Channel near Niantic, Connecticut with the loss of three crew.
- foundered 7 December 1921 in of water on a pre-commissioning dive. She was raised and commissioned 14 October 1922.
- , decommissioned on 2 May 1931, she was berthed at Philadelphia until 26 February 1936 when she sank at her mooring. Later raised, she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 12 May 1936 and on 19 August she was used as a target vessel for an aerial bombing test.
During World War II
American submarine losses
During World War II, the U.S. Navy's submarine service suffered one of the highest casualty percentage of all the American armed forces, losing one in five submariners. Some 16,000 submariners served during the war, of whom 375 officers and 3,131 enlisted men were killed, resulting in a total fatality rate of around 22%.Fifty-two submarines of the United States Navy were lost during World War II, all but one,, were lost in the Pacific theater of operations. Two – Dorado and – were lost to friendly fire, at least three more – Tulibee, Tang, and Grunion – to defective torpedoes, and six to accident or grounding.
Another eight submarines went missing while on patrol and are presumed to have been sunk by Japanese mines, as there are no known Japanese anti-submarine attacks in their patrol areas. The other thirty-three lost submarines are known to have been sunk by the Japanese.
| Ship name | Hull number | Date of loss | Fate | Approximate location |
| SS-218 | Lost to enemy mine | Northeast of Hokkaido | ||
| SS-219 | Lost to enemy action by torpedo boat Hiyodori and submarine chaser No. 18 | New Britain | ||
| SM-1 | Sunk by Japanese destroyers Isokaze and Maikaze | New Britain | ||
| SS-316 | Lost to enemy air attack | Borneo | ||
| SS-223 | Lost to enemy action: depth-charged by kaibōkan ''Okinawa, CD-63, CD-75, CD-158, and CD-207 | Sea of Japan | ||
| SS-332 | Lost to enemy air attack; last US submarine loss of the war | Java Sea | ||
| SS-289 | Lost after 2 December 1943 | Fate unknown; possible naval mine or attack by minelayer Wakataka | Celebes Sea | |
| SS-290 | Lost to air attack and gunboat Karatsu | Mindanao | ||
| SS-226 | Torpedoed and sunk by | Truk | ||
| SS-227 | Accidental grounding in pursuit of Japanese cruiser Takao | Palawan Passage | ||
| SS-248 | Sunk by friendly fire air attack or possibly mines laid by U-214 | Panama Canal Zone | ||
| SS-294 | Lost between 17 October and 13 November 1944 | Fate unknown; possibly naval mine or a Japanese escort destroyer | Yellow Sea | |
| SS-250 | Lost to enemy mine | Balabac Strait, Philippines | ||
| SS-361 | Lost to enemy action by escorts Miya Maru and Bunzan Maru | Northern Japanese waters | ||
| SS-207 | Sunk by Japanese destroyers Minegumo and Murasame | New Britain | ||
| SS-208 | Lost to enemy air attack | Ryukyu Islands | ||
| SS-209 | Lost between 9 and 12 September 1943 | Fate unknown; possibly rammed by transport Hokuan Maru | Lingayen Gulf, Philippines | |
| SS-210 | Scuttled following enemy air attack | Strait of Malacca | ||
| SS-215 | Sunk by Japanese destroyer Shigure and escort ships Chiburi and CD-19 | Philippines | ||
| SS-216 | Sunk by circular run of own torpedo | Kiska Island, Alaska | ||
| SS-211 | Fate unknown; possibly air attack | Maug Islands or possibly Iwo Jima | ||
| SS-257 | Lost to enemy action by kaibokan CD-22 | Dasol Bay, Philippines | ||
| SS-233 | Lost to enemy shore batteries | Kuril Islands | ||
| SS-369 | Lost between 19 and 31 March 1945 | Fate unknown; possibly sunk by mines | Ryukyu Islands | |
| SS-371 | Lost to enemy action by Japanese minelayer Hatsutaka | Gulf of Thailand | ||
| SS-176 | 1- | Scuttled following enemy action by Japanese destroyers Amatsukaze, Hatsukaze, Ushio, and Sazanami | Java | |
| SS-177 | Lost between 3 and 30 April 1943 | Fate unknown; possible enemy actions include one by minelayer Shirakami and auxiliary subchaser Bunzan Maru on 3 April 1943 | Northern Honshu | |
| SS-181 | Lost between 17 September and 30 October 1943 | Fate unknown; possibly naval mine or enemy action | Northern Honshu | |
| SS-89 | Foundered on training exercise | off Key West, Florida | ||
| SS-273 | Fate unknown; probably naval mine | West of Palawan Island | ||
| SS-275 | Lost between 26 June and 15 July 1943 | Fate unknown; possibly naval mine | Hokkaido | |
| SS-131 | Accidental collision with | Gulf of Panama | ||
| SS-132 | Accidental grounding | Amchitka Island, Alaska | ||
| SS-133 | Foundered while submerged during anti-submarine exercise | Oahu, Hawaii | ||
| SS-141 | Accidental grounding | Makassar Strait | ||
| SS-144 | Accidental grounding | Rossel Island | ||
| SS-155 | Lost to enemy action by Japanese escort Ishigaki | Kurile Islands | ||
| SS-277 | Lost to enemy action by kaibokan CD-4 and aircraft | Tokyo Bay | ||
| SS-278 | Lost between 6 and 30 January 1944 | Fate unknown; probably naval mine | East China Sea | |
| SS-191 | Scuttled following enemy action by Japanese destroyer Yamagumo | Gilbert Islands | ||
| SS-195 | Scuttled 25 December 1941 following irreparable damage in air attack 10 December | Cavite Navy Yard, Philippines | ||
| SS-197 | Probably sunk by "friendly fire" from | Morotai Island | ||
| SS-174 | Lost between 8 February and 7 March 1942 | Probably sunk by Japanese destroyer Yamakaze | Molucca Sea | |
| SS-314 | Sunk by Japanese destroyer Harukaze | Luzon Strait | ||
| SS-279 | Lost between 9 and 20 April 1945 | Sunk by Japanese escort ships Okinawa, CD-8, CD-32 and CD-52 | South China Sea | |
| SS-193 | Lost between 9 and 30 January 1945 | Fate unknown; possibly sunk by Japanese escort ship CD-4 or naval mine | Ryukyu Islands | |
| SS-306 | Sunk by circular run of own torpedo | Formosa Strait | ||
| SS-237 | Lost to enemy action by kaibokan Mikura, CD-33, and CD-59; assisted by air attack | Ryukyu Islands | ||
| SS-201 | Sunk by Japanese destroyers Samidare and Satsuki and submarine chasers CH-22 and CH-24 | Admiralty Islands | ||
| SS-202 | Sunk by Japanese destroyer Asashimo'' | Okinawa | ||
| SS-284 | Sunk by circular run of own torpedo | Palau Islands | ||
| SS-238 | Lost to enemy air and surface attack by submarine chasers CH-15, CH-43 and 3 E13A1 Jakes | La Perouse Strait |
Additional casualties
There are two additional casualties to submarines in World War II that are sometimes considered as effectively two additional losses.was damaged by Japanese air and surface forces on 14 November 1944. She was able to reach Saipan and later Pearl Harbor on 1 December, departing San Francisco for Portsmouth Navy Yard on 16 February 1945. There it was determined that she was a constructive total loss and beyond economical repair, but might be useful as a school ship, similar to the postwar immobile pierside training submarines. However, her career in this capacity was brief, and Halibut was decommissioned at Portsmouth Navy Yard 18 July 1945 and sold for scrap in January 1947.
was commissioned on 12 February 1945 and sank at pier 8 at the Boston Navy Yard on 15 March 1945, apparently without loss of life and reportedly still incomplete. She was raised eight days later, decommissioned on 24 March 1945, and never completed or fully repaired. Postwar, she was listed as a Reserve Fleet submarine until stricken in 1958 and scrapped in 1959, having never gone to sea.
Additional incidents
The former was transferred to the Royal Navy 9 March 1942 and renamed as HMS P.514. On 21 June 1942 she was rammed by the Royal Canadian Navy minesweeper and sank with all hands after the submarine was mistaken for a German U-boat.The former was sold in 1931 to a private owner for use as a tourist attraction, with the hulk reacquired by the U.S. Navy for "experimental purposes" in 1941. She foundered and sank in the Patuxent River 16 December 1942.
The former was transferred to the Royal Navy 4 November 1941 and renamed as RMS P.551 then transferred to the Polish Navy in exile and renamed. On 2 May 1942 she was attacked in a friendly fire incident by a Royal Navy minesweeper and destroyer and sank with all hands.
, originally commissioned on 16 December 1918 and decommissioned after more than 12 years of service, was recommissioned and served for five additional years during World War II. R-1 was decommissioned at Key West on 20 September 1945 and was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 10 November. Still at Key West awaiting disposal on 21 February 1946, the submarine sank in of water. Raised three days later, she was sold for scrap on 13 March 1946.
was decommissioned on 6 February 1945, was stripped, and her hulk was supposed to be expended as a target for aerial bombing off San Diego, California, but she broke her tow cable and sank, coming to rest in some of water, on 20 February 1945. Her name was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register three days later. Salvagers unsuccessfully tried to retrieve the wreck of S-37 for her scrap value, but lost her again off Imperial Beach, California, in of water at, where she remains to this day.
After World War II
Additional incidents
was decommissioned on 15 November 1945 and sold for scrap 8 June 1957. The Tarpon foundered in deep water, south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on 26 August 1957, while under tow to the scrap yard.USS Sargo - SSN-583 was docked in Pearl Harbor on 14 June 1960, preparing to take Bhumibol Adulyadej and his wife Mom Rajawongse Sirikit Kitiyakara, the King and Queen of Thailand on a cruise the next day. Sargo was charging her oxygen tanks when the oxygen line, which entered the submarine through the stern torpedo room hatch, developed a leak and a fire ignited. Two Mark 37 torpedo warheads detonated "low-order", and the fire spread dramatically, killing the crewman tending the oxygen line, machinist's mate third class James E. Smallwood. The fire, fed by the pressurized oxygen, shot flames over 100 feet in the air through the hatch. When the combined forces of the shipyard and the boat's crew were unable to control the fire, Sargo's officers took the submarine a short distance from the pier and submerged with the stern room hatch open. The fire was extinguished, and Sargo bottomed in the channel. A floating crane later raised the Sargo, which was towed to Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for repairs. Subsequent repairs took three months in drydock. Sargo was returned to active service in October 1960 and remained so until decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 21 April 1988. James E. Smallwood MM3, who sacrificed his life in the fire while taking action to save the ship was awarded, posthumously, the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for having "firmly and meticulously carried out the ship's safety precautions requiring isolation of the charging compartment from the remainder of the vessel. Aware of the potential danger involved, he kept the watertight door and bulkhead flappers shut." Other crew members were also awarded medals and letters of commendation for outstanding courage over and above the call of duty.
flooded and sank pier-side prior to commissioning at Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 15 May 1969. Two shipyard teams, apparently unaware of each other's efforts, were conducting work involving filling tanks in both the forward and aft portions of the submarine. Eventually the lack of coordination led to flooding through the bow hatch. The submarine was raised, but completion was delayed 32 months. Guitarro was commissioned on 9 September 1972.
was decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register 1 October 1970. On 1 June 1971, while under tow near Cape Flattery, Washington state, Bugara swamped and sank accidentally.
was not repaired after a fire near Florida on 24 April 1988 that killed three crewmembers. She was decommissioned 28 September 1988 and hulked 17 August 1989. The hull was later purchased by Northrop Grumman for testing.
experienced a fire during overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on 23 May 2012 that caused significant damage, though with no loss of life. A civilian shipyard worker confessed to arson. Although repairs were considered, using components from the decommissioned, the estimated cost of $700 million was considered uneconomical in a time of reduced budgets. Miami was decommissioned on 28 March 2014, to be disposed of via the nuclear Ship-Submarine Recycling Program.